Brave new world of blockchain

Blockchain has become the tech catchphrase of 2017 and even more so in 2018. Just as Machine Learning, sharing economy, crowdsourcing and crowdfunding made waves a few years back and the Internet of Things is hoping to gain the status of universally accepted standard in the electronics market, blockchain is quickly taking over the layer of tech that underpins many of the systems we know and use on a daily basis.
It has been touted as the greatest achievement since the invention of the internet (some even say since the invention of print). But unlike the internet, which we all took to in mid-1990s, it is hard to actually see the results that blockchain is producing. “As a consumer, you won’t realize it’s happening. Blockchain will underpin the applications you use but, like any protocol, it will be invisible,” explained Paweł Kuskowski, CEO of Coinfirm.
Money seems to by laying in the streets for start-ups that manage to build some actual value on blockchain technology. The number of job openings for the position of “blockchain engineer” is growing rapidly. MarketsandMarkets analysts claimed in 2017 that the blockchain market was valued at $415.5 million. By 2022 it will be worth $7.5 billion, marking nearly an 80-percent annual growth rate.

What will change?

The first obvious field where this advantage is crucial is finance. A few weeks ago, lender BZ WBK, whose main shareholder is Santander, launched its quick international payment service based on blockchain technology for clients transferring funds to the UK. The bank is planning on allowing blockchain-based quick transfers to Spain as well. Banco Santander informed that it is launching the new service in Poland, Spain, the UK and Brazil, as the first bank to launch blockchain payments in several countries at once. Clients will receive funds on the same or the following day of the transfer and will be informed of the exact value in local currency before the transfer is made. “Blockchain gives us many opportunities to optimize our services, with Santander One Pay FX the first of many such applications,” head of Banco Santander Ana Botin said. The new service uses the xCurrent application based on the distributed ledger technology, developed by California-based Ripple, one of whose investors is InnoVntures VC fund, part of Santander.

Blockchain remains an invisible force that is driving change in the tech world and a growing number of industries. As long as there is money behind it, the wheel will keep on turning. No doubt, some blockchain implementations make a lot of sense and will improve the security and speed of transactions, maybe even democratize data. But there will also likely be a host of projects that fail to deliver the added value they promised, leaving many investors wondering whether the emperor was naked all along.